


Fallen

by coaster



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Avengers Vol. 5 (2013), M/M, Not A Fix-It, Not Happy, Old Man Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-10 14:21:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4395182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coaster/pseuds/coaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Earth was safe. The Earths were safe. Tony was there. Except he really wasn't.</p><p>~</p><p>Steve listens but doesn't speak. Tony speaks and never listens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fallen

**Author's Note:**

> So, this was written at the end of the Avengers vol. 5 run and diverges wildly from the final issues onward. 
> 
> Please see the end of the work for a spoilery tag note. But otherwise, heed the Not Happy tag up there. I don't think this is very happy...
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

 

 

Tony was standing in the kitchen when Steve stepped through the front door. Steve stopped over the threshold, hand still on the door handle, but didn’t move to enter his apartment. The groceries in his hands suddenly felt heavier, the bag cutting into his palms.

Tony straightened from where he was lounging against the kitchen counter and sipped at what appeared to be a steaming cup of coffee. He took one last obnoxiously loud slurp then set the cup down and walked around the counter to stand in front of Steve.

“Need me to take those?” Tony said, reaching out a hand for Steve’s groceries.

Steve finally took a step into the apartment and closed the door behind him. Ignoring the out-stretched hand, he side-stepped Tony and made his way to the counter to put away his groceries.

He heard Tony follow him and settle back on the other side of the counter.

Steve started putting away the cold foodstuffs first. Vegetables in the vegetable drawer. Meat in the freezer. Milk in the door. Butter on the tray. Eggs in the eggrack.

“You know,” Tony said from behind him, “it’s been a while since any villain, super or otherwise, attacked anything in the city.”

Steve turned back to the counter, keeping his head down, and started putting the fruits into the fruit bowl at the corner of the counter. Oranges. Apples. Bananas. The grapes should go in the fridge-

“Everything is safe now,” Tony continued in front of him, “Normal. Calm. Well, as normal, safe, and calm as it’ll ever get in New York City.”

Steve took out the bread and oats, then rolled the grocery bag up and tucked it into his bag drawer. He considered his empty hands, then turned to the electric kettle to pour some water for tea except it was cold and empty. Right.

Behind him, Tony shuffled and took another loud sip from his mug.

Steve turned back to the counter, looking Tony straight in the eye.

Tony smiled. “Life can go on.”

Steve didn’t move, didn’t speak.

A flash of hurt crossed Tony’s face but it was gone in a beat, hidden behind his smile again.

Steve studied his eyes. They were the dark blue of the sea. Not the electric blue of madness.

“What did you expect me to have done, Steve?” Tony asked, spreading his hands wide. “Single-handedly save the universe, the multiverse, from complete annihilation?”

Steve growled and turned to walk the hallway to his bedroom. He didn’t need this tonight. Not again.

Tony didn’t follow him.

 

~*~

 

_In the beginning, there was a choice, Steve. The very beginning. There was a choice. The choice to do something. Or the choice to not. Which one did you pick, Steve?_

 

~*~

 

“So I didn’t,” Tony said, seated on the back of his couch.

Steve flipped the eggs. They sizzled in the pan. He took a pinch of salt and sprinkled it on. One of the yolks broke as he flipped it again and he held back a sigh.

“Or,” Tony said, louder over the sizzling and splattering of the eggs, “I didn’t do it alone anyway. Why is that so hard to accept?”

Steve slid the eggs out of the pan and onto the toast he’d laid out alongside a handful of cherry tomatoes. He threw on some chives, then took the entire plate, and a cup of milk, to the small dining table under the window.

Tony turned his head with Steve’s movement but didn’t make to come sit at the table.

Good. Steve didn’t need that this morning either. He chewed on his toast, cut into bite sized pieces. At least his teeth were in decent working order, even if nothing else in this old body of his was.

“I don’t know what it is you want anymore.”

Steve slammed down his fork and picked up his glass of milk, draining it and ignoring the cold burn down his throat. He used to be able to do this just fine.

He set his glass down harder than he should, but it didn’t break like it would have. It was a long time before he looked up again.

Tony was gone.

 

~*~

 

 _This isn’t about what I want. This is about what is right. You, you and the rest of them, all you cared about was building a better bomb. A more efficient bomb. A bomb that can wipe out entire planets! How is that—how can that be_ anything  _that_ anyone _could condone?_

 

~*~

 

Steve was reading the evening paper. The dollar was up, and the President had announced a joint peace summit between all the Presidents currently residing in the same temporal space. There was massive backlash, and there was outspoken support. The usual.

He flipped to the sports section and studied the column of baseball scores. Life had gone on as if nothing had happened. Mostly.

“Do you know what you sound like?” Tony asked from across the coffee table.

Steve flipped back to the business section. The dollar was doing well against the euro. Maybe he should move to Europe for a few months, or years. He had been fond of Italy, when he wasn’t being shot at. Maybe somewhere in Tuscany will be good for a while.

“You sound like you’re saying that you’d rather two universes’ worth of lives,  _at least_  two universes’ worth of lives be extinguished than to have your own hands dirtied.”

The paper under Steve’s fingers scrunched, and he tried hard to relax his grip. The ink was smeared where his fingers had dug in but he ignored it.

“All the people, Steve,” Tony’s voice came again, “Our friends. Their friends. Families. Everyone.”

Steve lowered his hands, the paper crumpling loudly into his lap, and looked at Tony.

Tony was lounging in the two-seater, foot up on knee, hands spread over the back of the couch. His armor was the silver of madness. The smirk on his face was incongruous with the desperate tone of voice in Steve's ear. Steve looked away, towards the window where the sky was darkening.

“I can take a lot from you, Steve,” Tony said, voice quiet, almost a sob. “God knows I’ve taken a lot from you. But this. I can’t take this, Steve. I can’t.”

Steve ignored the choked-back sobs and continued to look out the window.

When he looked back to the two-seater, Tony wasn’t there anymore.

 

~*~

 

_And what about those lives on the other Earths? What about them? What do your heinous plans mean for them? Those people? Friends? Families? What about them?!_

 

~*~

 

Steve was nursing a cut on his brow and a sprained knee. This was going to take longer to recover from. Usually this sort of thing healed in hours. Now, it would be days, weeks. He checked the clot on the cut, then took a pill of aspirin. His knee was going to be a priority and it still hurt.

“You should let me give you Extremis,” Tony said, casual.

Steve lay back further into his couch and closed his eyes. He heard Tony walk to his armchair and settle down. There was the sound of paper shuffling.

“You would have been back to your buff self in no time. Punching out grocery store robbers with ease. Wouldn’t that have been better?”

Steve let out a growl and tried to focus on anything else but the dull throbbing in his pressure-wrapped knee.

“I could whip up more,” Tony said, desperate.

Steve opened his eyes and turned to the voice. Tony was seated on the armchair like it was a throne. Legs crossed and hands draped over the armrest. He smiled when he saw Steve lift his head.

“I—we need you, Steve,” Tony’s voice came, small. In the chair, his smirk grew wider, smug. His silver armor gleamed almost unnaturally and his eyes glowed blue. “Please.”

Steve turned away and buried his face in the cushions.

_“Please.”_

Steve didn’t look up even as the sun set and the streets quietened.

 

~*~

 

_Mankind is not meant to be changed as technology dictates, Tony._

 

~*~

 

Steve hadn’t been able to join Carol in following a lead she’d picked up from Madrox; one of his duplicates had apparently seen two Tony Starks on one of the Earths he’d visited.

Cross-walking between the Earths had to go through stringent security checks and Tony Stark had not been on the list of Authorized Travelers. He could not be on the list of Authorized Travelers.

Madrox had been belatedly put on the emergency list as he had been chasing a petty villain from their Earth back and forth. The villain, a recently awakened mutant, had thrown Carol through a building before two dozen of Madrox’s duplicates piled on him and took him down through sheer quantity. They’d locked the villain away but Carol had spoken to Madrox then relayed the news to Steve before going with Madrox to the Earth in question.

Steve’s knee had gotten worse over the past couple of days. The fluctuating fall weather was not doing his creaking joints any favors let alone the sprain in his knee.

He sat and seethed and waited.

Carol came to visit him hours later and only shook her head, dejected. It hadn’t been their Tony.

He sat back into his chair and sighed.

Steve had hoped, but it’s been too long. Tony would’ve come back by now if he—if he—

Steve left Carol standing n his living room and went to bed. Tony didn't speak to him.

 

~*~

 

_Mankind dictates technology, Steve._

 

~*~

 

The sky was burning. Everything was burning. Steve coughed wetly and crawled over to where Jessica lay. He shook her gently, calling her name but she didn’t wake, strands of dark hair tangled over her face. He made sure that she was breathing steadily before turning onto his back with difficulty to take in the chaos around him, above him.

One of the Earths in their temporal space had not been filled with good-hearted humans.

There was a loud, ear-splitting screech as one of the creatures expired. Steve screwed his eyes shut, ears ringing, but the screech was immediately followed by a cacophony of louder, angered screeches and the sky burned brighter.

He opened his eyes and looked to the sky again.

The battle had raged on around him, after he had taken one hit too many. Above him, skeletal parodies of angels were battling Earth’s Mightiest. Steve saw Sam, wings spanning wide, as he dodged the sharp scythe-like wings of the Fallen. From the edges of his vision, he saw the glow and crackle of lightning and thunder as Thor lit the skies around her. A beam of red fanned the sky and two of the Fallen fell, succumbing to their name. The ground shuddered and a familiar roar reverberated through the dusty air.

And as he watched on, his breath coming harder and harder through what were probably broken ribs, he thought he heard the whine of a repulsor.

He tried to sit up but his arms wouldn’t hold his weight. He looked to the side, to Jessica, but she was still unconscious from her fall.

He fell back heavily, clenching his teeth. Why now? Why now of all times? He closed his eyes and opened his mouth to call.

“Tony.”

Around him, the battle raged on. The sky flashed and the screeches of the Fallen cut through to the bone.

“Tony.”

There was a yell and a loud thud as something, someone, collided with the ground. The Fallen gave a screech of victory. Steve opened his eyes. He couldn’t see Sam anymore. He panicked.

“Tony!”

The rubble around him shook and Steve heard the sound of repulsors in flight. He looked above him and saw a familiar glow fly towards him. His heart stuttered then beat faster and he watched on as the glow drew closer and closer. And as the sound of repulsors grew louder, Steve realized it wasn’t what he had expected. What he had wanted.

A small drone, the size of a football, dropped down from the sky and hovered above his knee. It was sleek and rounded, showing no visible seams.

As it turned full circle, Steve saw words displayed on the body of the little drone:

_Will you take it now?_

The ground shook again and the Fallen screeched again in victory.

Steve clenched his teeth harder and reached towards the drone. It flitted about then positioned itself under Steve’s fingers for the sensors to read him. It beeped once, a green light flashed, and it sprung open.

Steve reached and extracted a metallic cylinder from the innards. Tied to it was a note.

“ _I’m sorry, Steve. I deleted the research, but I kept this last, live dose. I know you’ll need it one day. Please don’t be angry. –T”_

Steve closed his eyes and thought of the faces of all his friends, of all the people he knew. Fought with. Fought for. Laughed with. Loved.

He opened his eyes and plunged the extended needles into his forearm.

Extremis ran through his veins like fire.

 

~*~

 

_Steve. I know you make your choices with the best for humanity in mind. You know best, and I’ll always respect your choices. I know what I did was against all that you believe in, and I’m sorry. But I think of all our friends and all the people of this Earth, and I couldn’t not do it. I’m sorry I had to go against you, but I’m not sorry I did it. And this is a last try. A final attempt. The last hope. Reed should have briefed you on the set-up for the merge. It should work but... you’ll all be safe on the raft either way. If our Earth is still here in half an hour, then I might be, too. If not, then goodbye, Steve. Yours was the best friendship of my life. And I’ll go happy, knowing you are there to take the best of humanity in its next step towards the future._

Half an hour later on the dot, the world had flashed white, once. The Earth had still been here. All of the Earths had been here.

But Tony Stark had not.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilery note: Tony is dead before the start of the story. Steve hallucinates him throughout.


End file.
